So this is my spring break post! Finally it has come. My awesome aunt and uncle visited me, which is great! For the first few days we did lots of things around the city, like went to mass in Santa Croce, I showed them my apartment, my school, I took them to some of my favorite eateries, we went shopping, did some walking around the city center, amongst other things. My uncle bought us leather jackets, which was so nice! Such a wonderful present! Then Tuesday my aunt and I left for Paris for a night, and my uncle wanted to see the Porsche car factory so he went to Stuttgart, Germany!
We landed in Paris, and although it was raining it was a beautiful city. Cold and wet, but beautiful. We hit the ground running when our plane landed, we taxied to our hotel, dropped off our bags and went in search of our tourism guide office where our bus tour was leaving from. A quick trip on the metro (yay us for conquering it), and after a few stops asking for directions (I asked in French, yay!) we get to our destination. Our bus takes us to a "river cruise" down the Seine, and it came with an audio guide- so we were able to see sights from the river and then hear about them in our audioguide. It was beautiful at night, everything was lit up. Had it not been so cold and rainy we would have sat on the top of the boat.
Anyway, next stop was to the Eiffel Tower! We walked from the boats and we see the Tour d'Eiffel sparkling in front of us. We actually got to go up it! The legs of the tower have lifts/ascensions/elevators so we rode up to the second story! It was really high up but offered a great view of the city. There were even restaurants up there and souvenir shops too! Weird. We then go back down and attempt to find our bus to have the "illumination" nighttime bus tour of Paris. We have some trouble finding it, but after I ask for directions (in French!) we find our way.
Upon getting on the bus, we ride all over the city looking at all these cool sights, which are beautiful because they are all illuminated. After the driver fixed our audioguide (the english setting was the only language that wasn't working, of course) we get a nice historical overview along with looking out the window of our double decker bus. We finally reach our hotel, and my aunt and I stay up to answer some emails from my school- fighting some fires about classes over 5,000 miles away. Luckily they all got sorted out within a week or so. Our hotel room was so cute and quaint! The view outside was a nice survey of the main street below us... The culture in Paris is like no other! The people are so cool, its very similar to New York but somehow more chic. Everything sounds better in French I guess.
The next day we have a wonderful breakfast in our hotel, and we are off early for an audiotour of the gardens by the Louvre, and then the Louvre itself. We get these cool devices from the travel agency that looked like pens, and when you held them up to the pamphlet with the item you want to learn about, you push a button and it scanned it, then it played a prerecorded lesson! It was so cool, there must have been 50 or so, it was upper level technology. So fun! My aunt and I toured the Tuileries Gardens and the tiny arc, and all around there. It was gorgeous! Then we went in the Louvre, and we had skip the line tickets, so we bypassed THOUSANDS of people! At least a 3 hour wait by the look of it, and we just walked right in :) we saw so many things! It was wonderful to see so much art in one place! Everywhere you looked something that I studied in my art class, something more beautiful than the next. So much history and so much culture. We saw Mona of course, Michelangelo's Slaves, Venus de Milo, Nike of Samothrace, Madonna of the Rocks, the Inverted Pyramids and so many other things I can't even remember. I took pictures though! The Louvre also has some insane shopping stores in the bottom level, along with some nice restaurants. Expensive stuff, and there is even a Laduree macaron store in there! It was so impressive!
Next stop was lunch at a cute little cafe. We sat outside- I got a cappuccino, and my aunt got hot chocolate and we both got croque monsieurs.... So very french! And then the hop on/ hop off bus tour was next. We had a bit of trouble with that, because the tour agency gave us the wrong bus company, and all the information we had was for the wrong one. !e had no idea how to find the correct one, and we didn't have their number to call. So we just waited until we found the correct one, and followed it until we saw it stop at the designated bus stop. It took some time out of our day, and it was raining too during this, so that was a little frustrating. But we eventually found it, and managed to see lots of things with our remaining time! Went inside Notre Dame, and while on the Isle de Cité we stopped inside Sainte Chapelle... which was gorgeous. Both of these churches were absolutely amazing. Then we saw the Pont Neuf with the "love locks" on the sides, and we went down the Champs Elysees, and got out and saw the Arc de Triomphe! Wow was that a sight. After that, it was time to go to the airport, so we flagged a taxi.
After lots of traffic and a very expensive cab, we make it to the airport. However, our driver was sleepy and drove us to the wrong terminal; which made us later than we already were because of the insane traffic. We find our gate and everything is going fine, until the guards tell us we can't go through security because there had been unattended luggage close by, and they were going into emergency procedure. I literally cannot make this up, this actually happened. So we have to go through all these loops to get back into the terminal, it takes forever, long story short we have 5 minutes to get all through security and walk to the farthest gate in the airport. Lots of running involved, and many frustrated people. I saw military guys decked out in camo, kevlar vests and huge guns at the ready, it was nuts. Luckily they held the plane for us, because there was so many of us. So thank goodness we make the flight :)
So that's pretty much it! The last night I show my aunt and uncle this awesome nice restaurant on the Oltrarno side called Da Pescatore, and it was so tasty. We had a great last meal together. It was really nice to see them, and I'm glad they got to come :) all in all, even with all the ups and downs, spring break was great!
Ciao ragazzi :)
Anyway, next stop was to the Eiffel Tower! We walked from the boats and we see the Tour d'Eiffel sparkling in front of us. We actually got to go up it! The legs of the tower have lifts/ascensions/elevators so we rode up to the second story! It was really high up but offered a great view of the city. There were even restaurants up there and souvenir shops too! Weird. We then go back down and attempt to find our bus to have the "illumination" nighttime bus tour of Paris. We have some trouble finding it, but after I ask for directions (in French!) we find our way.
Upon getting on the bus, we ride all over the city looking at all these cool sights, which are beautiful because they are all illuminated. After the driver fixed our audioguide (the english setting was the only language that wasn't working, of course) we get a nice historical overview along with looking out the window of our double decker bus. We finally reach our hotel, and my aunt and I stay up to answer some emails from my school- fighting some fires about classes over 5,000 miles away. Luckily they all got sorted out within a week or so. Our hotel room was so cute and quaint! The view outside was a nice survey of the main street below us... The culture in Paris is like no other! The people are so cool, its very similar to New York but somehow more chic. Everything sounds better in French I guess.
The next day we have a wonderful breakfast in our hotel, and we are off early for an audiotour of the gardens by the Louvre, and then the Louvre itself. We get these cool devices from the travel agency that looked like pens, and when you held them up to the pamphlet with the item you want to learn about, you push a button and it scanned it, then it played a prerecorded lesson! It was so cool, there must have been 50 or so, it was upper level technology. So fun! My aunt and I toured the Tuileries Gardens and the tiny arc, and all around there. It was gorgeous! Then we went in the Louvre, and we had skip the line tickets, so we bypassed THOUSANDS of people! At least a 3 hour wait by the look of it, and we just walked right in :) we saw so many things! It was wonderful to see so much art in one place! Everywhere you looked something that I studied in my art class, something more beautiful than the next. So much history and so much culture. We saw Mona of course, Michelangelo's Slaves, Venus de Milo, Nike of Samothrace, Madonna of the Rocks, the Inverted Pyramids and so many other things I can't even remember. I took pictures though! The Louvre also has some insane shopping stores in the bottom level, along with some nice restaurants. Expensive stuff, and there is even a Laduree macaron store in there! It was so impressive!
Next stop was lunch at a cute little cafe. We sat outside- I got a cappuccino, and my aunt got hot chocolate and we both got croque monsieurs.... So very french! And then the hop on/ hop off bus tour was next. We had a bit of trouble with that, because the tour agency gave us the wrong bus company, and all the information we had was for the wrong one. !e had no idea how to find the correct one, and we didn't have their number to call. So we just waited until we found the correct one, and followed it until we saw it stop at the designated bus stop. It took some time out of our day, and it was raining too during this, so that was a little frustrating. But we eventually found it, and managed to see lots of things with our remaining time! Went inside Notre Dame, and while on the Isle de Cité we stopped inside Sainte Chapelle... which was gorgeous. Both of these churches were absolutely amazing. Then we saw the Pont Neuf with the "love locks" on the sides, and we went down the Champs Elysees, and got out and saw the Arc de Triomphe! Wow was that a sight. After that, it was time to go to the airport, so we flagged a taxi.
After lots of traffic and a very expensive cab, we make it to the airport. However, our driver was sleepy and drove us to the wrong terminal; which made us later than we already were because of the insane traffic. We find our gate and everything is going fine, until the guards tell us we can't go through security because there had been unattended luggage close by, and they were going into emergency procedure. I literally cannot make this up, this actually happened. So we have to go through all these loops to get back into the terminal, it takes forever, long story short we have 5 minutes to get all through security and walk to the farthest gate in the airport. Lots of running involved, and many frustrated people. I saw military guys decked out in camo, kevlar vests and huge guns at the ready, it was nuts. Luckily they held the plane for us, because there was so many of us. So thank goodness we make the flight :)
So that's pretty much it! The last night I show my aunt and uncle this awesome nice restaurant on the Oltrarno side called Da Pescatore, and it was so tasty. We had a great last meal together. It was really nice to see them, and I'm glad they got to come :) all in all, even with all the ups and downs, spring break was great!
Ciao ragazzi :)
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